The third option, which includes a toll lane, would go from the Corona Del Mar (73) Freeway in Costa Mesa to the 605 Freeway and would cost $1.7 billion, according to OCTA spokesman Joel Zlotnik. It would also add a single free lane in each direction.

The toll lane would run parallel to the car-pool lane, and motorists with three or more people in a vehicle would be allowed to use the toll lane for no charge, Zlotnik said.

“I’m not surprised they would go with an alternative one since they keep complaining they don’t have enough money for option two,” he said. “But it’s misleading to give us one, two and three if they had no intention whatsoever to consider option two. I think it was a ruse to move us into option three. But I’ll be happy with (option) one. I want as many lanes as I can get, and I don’t want to have to pay for a toll road.”

Measure M money will be used to pay for the new lanes, Zlotnik said.

Final environmental documents for the project should be done by this coming spring, Scheper said. Design and construction is expected to be done between 2015 and 2019, she added.

The move doesn’t alleviate the concerns of city officials in Los Angeles County, including Long Beach, who have criticized the project for not considering the impacts of the widening on communities to the north.

The OCTA project would stop at the border of Los Angeles and Orange counties, with traffic on the expanded, improved freeway then squeezing into fewer lanes on the 405 and 605 freeways in the Long Beach area.

O’Donnell and other critics predict a massive traffic bottleneck.

Last month, OCTA officials agreed to expand their environmental study on potential impacts to Long Beach if the San Diego (405) Freeway is widened.